The family of Rene Tkacik, the construction worker killed when a tonne of cement fell on him in a Crossrail tunnel, expressed their anguish yesterday after the BFK consortium, comprising the companies BAM, Ferrovial and Kier pleaded guilty in Southwark Crown Court.

BFK were fined £300,000 for the death of Rene. In total the court fined the consortium £1million, which included other Health & Safety breaches which had resulted in serious accidents including a near fatal electrocution.

There has been a great deal of anger as Rene’s family and their lawyer, Helen Clifford from McMillan Williams Solicitors only found out about the trial date by chance when they contacted the HSE for an update on the case earlier this week.

Ms Clifford read out a statement on behalf of Marta Tkacik and the rest of the family in open court yesterday. Rene’s mother’s statement told how receiving the phone call about her son’s death “was the most devestating news in my life. My heart was literally ripped out”.

Lee James Fowler, blacklisted safety rep from the Blacklist Support Group, travelled from Liverpool to attend the sentencing and commented:
“Rene’s death is a tragedy but it was totally avoidable if BFK had put proper safety measures in place. But instead, the Health & Safety at Work Act was breached and at the same time the companies were victimising Frank Morris after he raised concerns about safety on the project. Blacklisting may have been a contributory factor not just in Rene’s death but a series of other near fatal accidents on Crossrail”.

It has now emerged that the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) originally intended to prosecute the three companies in their own names but lawyers acting for the Crossrail contractors agreed to plead guilty if the BFK temporary Joint Venture was charged instead. By BFK pleading guilty, it means that Bam, Ferrovial and Kier escape convictions, which may have potentially affected future public sector contracts.

Keith Dobie, blacklisted construction worker from Tottenham commented after the sentencing:
“£300,000 for a man’s life. That will cost the three multinationals £100k each – which is probably less that the bonuses that their senior managers will receive on the project. To add insult to injury, the companies even had the cheek to ask for time to pay the fine. It’s time to put people before profit”.”

We rally outside police station where family members will speak also local and national campaigners.

We demand the following:

We demand to know how our son and brother Darren Cumberbatch sustained multiple serious injuries after contact with the Police that lead to his death
We demand a swift open and transparent investigation.

We demand the immediate suspension of all officers involved in our son/brothers death

The G20 summit in Hamburg earlier this month saw fierce, determined resistance in the streets, as chronicled by CrimethInc, Mark Bray on the Final Straw, …umz Ganze! and Plan C, among others. It sounds like the police tactics were based around beatings and street violence more than making arrests, but there are still a number of people who were arrested and now face charges for allegedly participating in the actions. United We Stand is a new initiative to support those facing repression as a result of the events in Hamburg; they don’t have a huge amount of English-language info yet, but here’s a list of the prisoners, along with a short machine translation of the blurb:

Very young companions and young comrades are still locked up without trial in Hamburg’s prison after the G20. They are sunny and alone, they have no cell phone, no computers, they can only make one phone call every day.

Our job is to be on their side, to share with them the aseptic space of a cell of a distant nation.

When we say ours, we talk about all of us, who was there and who did not go to Hamburg.

With a little effort each of us can be the breath of the entourage.

We write and send a letter to those still in prison for the G20 in Hamburg.

Solidarity on social networks unfortunately does not come to the hell of the prison, in the hours running all the same, endless.

Spend a few pounds in stamps to send a script, a greeting, a poem, a song, a letter, whatever is a precious act of care, a revolutionary act.

In arrests validating hearings, only one eighteen-year-old companion received the ok for the release, subject to a security deposit of 10,000 euros.Fabio – will remain in prison: the Hamburg Public Prosecutor’s Office has in fact brought an immediate appeal, which was accepted by the Court of First Instance.

The other four comrades and a companion are still in prison awaiting trial. The same thing happened to almost every other international: the pretext would be the danger of escape. The German arrestees were largely released, but around 30 protesters remain in prison.

Now, Legal Team lawyers will present a new release announcement next week, then wait for the process that could begin in August.

From Hamburg upgrading the hearings and conditions of detention of Italian comrades and others arrested with the lawyer’s lawyer Maja Beisenhertz Listen or Download

“Cineworld is one of the world’s biggest cinema chains, which made over £90 million in post-tax profit last year. Workers at several Picturehouse cinemas, part of a chain owned by Cineworld, have been striking to win the London Living Wage of £9.75/hour, decent sick pay, company maternity/paternity pay and union recogntion, among other demands.

As supporters of the strikes, we’re calling a day of action in solidarity with the workers, to demand:

* Living wages now!
* Recognise the union
* Stop union-busting: reinstate the sacked reps
We’re calling on activists to leaflet both outside (customers) and inside (workers) your local Picturehouse and Cineworld sites. Specific leaflets will be available to download and print from this page.

Picturehouse workers have called a boycott of all sites, so you can make customers aware of this and encourage them to take their business elsewhere until Cineworld/Picturehouse pays a Living Wage and stops union busting.

If there are lots of you, you can have a big, noisy presence with placards and flags. But even if there’s only two of you, leafleting customers, passersby, and workers inside the cinema, and taking a photo outside with posters/placards supporting the strike, will still be a valuable and worthwhile activity.

We encourage anyone organising an action to (subtly) go into the cinema first and leaflet all the workers you can find, before starting leafleting outside.

We’d like anyone who does an action to take a photo of it; post them here, and tweet them with the hashtag #PHDayOfAction, tagging the following accounts:

We welcome support for this callout from trade union branches, local Labour Parties, Momentum groups, socialist and anarchist organisations, and other left-wing and radical campaigning groups. If your local group sets up an event as part of this day of action, post a link here and let us know.”

Mike Williams is currently being held in Sacramento jail awaiting trial on charges related to his alleged participation in a clash with fascist groups last year. You can donate to help bail him out here (his bail was initially set at a totally ludicrous amount, but that’s hopefully being changed to something more realistic), or send him a letter or card at

It’s always wise to remember that post going into jails and prisons is monitored, but that goes double for people who are awaiting trial – please be careful not to say anything that could potentially be useful to prosecutors, or that you wouldn’t like to hear read out in court.